


Keeping Company

by opalmatrix



Category: Old Kingdom - Garth Nix
Genre: Flash Fic, Frenemies, Gen, Nostalgia, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-15
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-12 11:03:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1185479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalmatrix/pseuds/opalmatrix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The relationship is warmer than you might think.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keeping Company

**Author's Note:**

  * For [whymzycal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/whymzycal/gifts).



> Valentine's Day flash fic/gift fic. Prompt: Mogget and the Dog, "old friends." No beta.

  
  
_Happy Valentine's Day!_   


Deep in the forest, far from the nearest town and several hundred yards from the banks of the River Ratterlin, a fire was burning. A lithe white cat was sprawled beside it, basking in the warmth and licking his paws.

"Is there room enough for me there?" asked a gruff voice from the darkness.

The cat's ears flattened, and he hissed: "You."

"Yes, me," said the voice, and a large black and tan dog stepped into the firelight.

The cat let his ears rise up once more and went back to cleaning his paws. His entire being radiated elaborate unconcern. "It makes no difference to me whether you come or go, Kibeth" he said. Tucking his paws under himself, he closed his eyes.

"You're as charming and friendly as ever, I see," said the dog, as she flung herself onto the ground across the fire from him.

"You're completely welcome to seek more congenial company," said the cat, without opening his eyes.

"I wanted to see my brother again."

"You're seeing me. Can't you do so in silence?"

Kibeth huffed out a martyred sigh. The cat's eyes opened the tiniest bit, two dark slits that reflected sparks of yellow fire as the flames flickered. "Why are you feeling so sorry for yourself?"

"I certainly can't visit my mistress, you know. I was feeling nostalgic. Do you remember when we were young?"

"Vividly." The cat closed his eyes again. "All the world was our playground. The few women and men clustered together in dens, frightened of the night. Now they spawn stone towns and cities across the world, chop down forests and plow the soil. The hunting is not what it was."

"But at least there is hunting still, Yrael."

"Yes. Are you worried that I regret the choice I made in the matter of our exiled sibling?"

"I know you don't."

"For once you are right."

"So cold. When you were a tiny thing, you would hunt and play the weeks and months away. and when you were tired, you would come curl up by my side."

"The past can't be unwritten, Kibeth. You frolicked and ran free and interfered as you would while I was a slave of the Abhorsen."

"Sometimes. At other times, I was simply waiting for her to be born, waiting in a stone chamber deep beneath the glacier, with no company at all."

The cat did not answer. The dog sighed and rested her head on her paws, closing her eyes as well. Soon her breathing deepened and slowed, and she was asleep.

Yrael opened his eyes and watched her for a while. The fire gradually burned down, golden flames sinking into red rubies of coals. He knew where there was more dead wood in the forest around them, but he did not go to fetch any. After a time, he stood up and stretched. His form shifted and drifted, and in a moment, he was a white dog, smaller than Kibeth and thinner. He padded silently around the glowing coals and curled up against his sister's warm side.

The Disreputable Dog smiled in her sleep.

Photo from Nina Matthews Photography under Creative Commons on Flickr

 


End file.
